AOE3 Forums

In a early rush game by 7:00, I think the shipment in Colonial of Dutch is so weak and unfair, and almost can't fight to Ottoman rush or German rush by a expert player,since these two civilizations can train an army of more than 20 soldiers easily to rush u by 07:00, so if a player of Dutch used 8 pikeman shipment , it doesn't stop anything , if a player of Dutch all concentrates on age up to Fortress age ,  by 07:00 without any troops ,will result to be defeated .

so ,  I think the shipment in Colonial is not fair for Dutch , any thought ?(if 8 pikeman change to 8 halberdier or something else will be better? )

The shipment is fair, the point is not to do a naked ff, but a semi ff, where 4 banks and a barracks are established before aging. This lets u train skirmishers, which will help following TC fire and minutemen. The pikemen shipment is useful at repelling raids if the opponent is likely to raid (ie, Sioux or India FF) and 3 hussars is also useful.

In short, a player shouldnt be concentrating only on getting to the fortress age in a sup game at all, with the dutch an economy needs to be set up beforehand. A good age up time for Dutch is 9 mins, at which point they can mass ruyters and skirmishers, or even cannons if they havent been attacked or have recently fended one off.

However, given the context 8 pikes is a bit weak, perhaps a 9 pikemen shipment would be fairer? 

are u playing TAD??  i doo...  sometimes i rush with dutch, i can have 10 skirm + 8 pike on 6 min. ore 10 skirm and BW. ore 700 wood. when i play vs otto i build rax + 1 house and market. and buy wood for more houses,  1st  card 3 vills. age with 15. 2nd  card bank wagon.  (u need food to early skirm mass so u cant affort build banks) 3rd card 8 pikes ore 700 wood. i can have 10 skirm on lees then 6 min and 5 more on the way. it own most early jan rush. but scout scout scout. if he ff ore fi u have to ff also. else his spahi will own u. if u fight ine 2nd age beware of abus guns.make hussar.  and vs german. just rush. u can be in base on 6 min with 10 skirm + 8 pikes. if u are unluckey he will use 2nd card as 8 xbow+ 2 uhlan. but with micro ur 10 skirm will own his xbow and ur pikes will take his cav. but keep ur pikes away from xbow but also near ur skirms. this rush need really good microin hit and run but it works. when xbow is dead seige his rax. if u see him gather lot gold build more pikes. because he will atack with more cav. it works for me. for me german is a easy win. i play self lot germen before dutch.    GL   HF

PS. i am 1 st leut and it also work vs captains.

Each European civilization gets 2 of the "basic" Colonial Age Military cards: 8 xbows, 8 Pikes,, 6 Musketeers or 3 Hussars (obviously UU shipments, like 5 Uhlans, 6 Longbowmen  and 5 Jannisaries are the exceptions). Because Dutch don't have Crossbows or Musketeers, it's a no-brainer to give them the 8 Pikes and 3 Hussar shipment. Their shipments are pretty well balanced, you just need to know how to use them. I.E. instead of shipping 8 pikes against a Jan rush, maybe 700 wood would be better for banks, rax or houses?

You mentioned that the Dutch don't stand a chance against a Jann rush. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Do a basic 15 vill up with the 400 wood politician. Collect 100 wood first (if you got an extra wood crate, this isn't necessary) and build a house, then split your vills between food and gold, with more on gold. Collect the 400 wod as soon as you age, build 2 rax with it and ship in 700 wood. Queue a villager, then as many skirms as you can out of both rax. Make sure you get 10 from the first batch. After that, hit and run his Janns to death. Keep up constant villager production and try to build skirms from one rax. That second rax will most likely not be used until you have a few banks up. After you kill his Janns, adjust your eco and do whatever you like: boom, pressure, age up, etc. Ship 8 pikes as your 3rd shipment to kill his 3 Hussar Shipment, and you're good to go.

 I created the 2 Rax Skirm spam specifically to counter the Jann rush. I found that in the beginning of the game, I had more than enough eco to produce 2 batches of skirms in one rax, but they train so slowly that it would usually be 5 Skirms vs. 15 Janns or so, which puts you on the back foot. So the easy solution is to put up another rax and gain the upper ground.
 

Thank you guys for those suggestions , that's really helpful.

I am thinking ....as a Ottoman player try to rush his opponent , he only need to train one kind of army---Janissaries, due to the ability of Janissary is so mighty ,------life--235, range attack--20 ,  siege damage---25 , hand attack --15 ,this army not just can do "rush ", also can do "siege" ,  but the Dutch side.....the ability of skirmisher----life --120, range attack--15*2 , siege damage--12 , hand attack--6*2 , so , if Dutch want to besiege his opponent's TC , or any building in the range of TC ,Dutch have to train pikeman to assist skirmisher , so that will need 3 kind of resources---food , wood , and gold , and Ottoman only need food and gold .And the Dutch settler trainning needs gold  , the Ottoman settler is for free ,that's another point of view to consider that Colonial shipment is not fair for Dutch (for a early rush game ),  any opinions ?